Are fruits really bad for greeks?

[spurtighted43]

In here, Turkey, tortoises are common and you can see them in whole country. There is a story that my friend telling;
In his childhood, they were living close to Aegean Sea and they have a 5-10 decar melon field. But+15 tortoises were terrorizing the garden as taking a bite from all melons. They were collecting the tortoises, and releasing them to other side of the creek. But torts coming back to field and keep munching on melons.

This tortoises are wild ones and I think they know what is healthy from themselves, right?

 

[Tom]

In here, Turkey, tortoises are common and you can see them in whole country. There is a story that my friend telling;
In his childhood, they were living close to Aegean Sea and they have a 5-10 decar melon field. But+15 tortoises were terrorizing the garden as taking a bite from all melons. They were collecting the tortoises, and releasing them to other side of the creek. But torts coming back to field and keep munching on melons.

This tortoises are wild ones and I think they know what is healthy from themselves, right?

Wrong. Like children they are attracted to what tastes good to them and what is available. They are opportunists. They were probably also eating lots of leaves and blooms. Fruit is not good for them because the high sugar content wreaks havoc with their GI tract and the flora and fauna that live there.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Melons are delicious candy so far as those tortoises are concerned; of course they are coming over to take a bite.

But melons don't grow in their native territory, or at least any that do are going to have very little sugar. Same goes for most fruits in shrubby, dry areas.There might be some plants that drop fruit on occasion but I can't imagine anything with near amount of sugar as a cultivated melon.

Do they know what's not beneficial in an area where they've been developing for hundreds of thousands of years (millions?)? Probably. Do they know that a bag of Snickers is not beneficial overall? No.

 

[wellington]

If the melons were planted by humans then the melon is not native to a tortoises territory unless it can grow without any human first bringing it into the area.